Anarchy reigns in the dystopian world of "Communiqué nº 10," the piece by French playwright Samuel Gallet that opened Thursday at Cutting Ball Theater. That seems to be as true of the police patrols that rampage (unseen) on the periphery of the story as it is of the youth gangs that claim to control the night. But anarchy often overwhelms the play, and director-translator Rob Melrose's production.

Not that that's always a bad thing in this ambitious American premiere, presented in association with Golden Thread Productions and the opening shot in this year's Des Voix ... Found in Translation festival of staged readings of new French plays and film showings. At times, the prevailing blur of relationships and time frames creates a trenchant ambiguity, as in an evocative, father-son-like graveside chat between Damien Seperi's protagonist, Hassan, and Aaron Malberg's Old Man.

More often, though, it's unnecessarily confusing. A seemingly random assignment of narrators - to set the time of place of each short scene - makes it hard for you to get your bearings, especially when the space's live acoustics (amplified by a mike and echo effects) muddy the content. Emma Jaster's choreography has actors clambering about the metal scaffold set for no apparent reason other than to create an unearned sense of energy and urgency.

The central story of Hassan's single-minded quest for revenge for the police killing of his younger brother emerges slowly from the general chaos, but that may be partly Gallet's intent. Inspired by the nationwide 2005 French riots over racism and police brutality, "Communiqué" is Gallet's examination of the "social apartheid" infesting his society (and, perhaps, our own).

He peoples the underworld of his play with an assortment of presumably young characters, though the uneven performances don't always make that clear. Hugo Carbajal does, unnervingly so, with the salacious-mendacious steady stare of his Child, an Artful Dodger-like rebellion leader and all-round fixer. Ponder Goddard's Anne is a tightly wound street urchin grown into combative adolescence.

Maura Halloran's inchoate street photographer Marlene and Wiley Naman Strasser's scavenger Yag never quite gel as characters. Seperi brings a traumatized commitment to Hassan, but is less sure in expressing his emotions. The most convincing performance is Paris Hunter Paul's edgy, watchful Damien, Hassan's former best friend, now on the run.

Gallet has important things to signify in "Communiqué." The sound and the fury, however, get in the way.